Restriction lift date: 2029-09-30
Öcalan’s democratic civilization
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Date
2025-12-31
Authors
Mûkrîyan, Rojîn
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
This thesis is an in-depth study of the political theory of the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan (1949-). This work aims to accomplish a few things. First, it explores Öcalan as a political theorist. It places him within the history of political theory and within contemporary debates about the relationship between political theory and political practice in order to identify what kind of political theorist he is. Secondly, it explores how Öcalan’s metaphysical views determine his political theory. While it is likely true of all political theories, Öcalan’s political theory is deeply influenced by his metaphysical views. He is rare for a political theorist insofar as he explicitly addresses his views on key topics in metaphysics, ontology, philosophy of mind, agency, and metanormativity. He intimates how his views and positions on these topics determine his political theory. This work makes those intimations explicit and draws a number of consequences. Third, this dissertation analyzes and critiques Öcalan’s fundamental concept of democratic civilization, the guiding notion of his entire political thought.
The central question this project asked was whether Öcalan’s concept of democratic civilization was coherent. It answered in the affirmative. It is coherent. By accepting his persuasive redefinitions of the key terms of ‘democracy’ and ‘civilization,’ and thus ‘democratic civilization,’ Öcalan’s view was seen as exhibiting conceptual coherence. What was key in discerning this coherence was seeing how his metaphysical views grounded his political views. In other words, we saw how Öcalan’s views cohere when viewed with sufficient metaphysical depth and focus. Öcalan’s metaphysical and political views offer a coherent attempt to not only understand history, but to initiate a period of the gradual achievement of a democratic civilization that would serve as the political, moral, and social setting for global peace. For Öcalan, the forces of liberty and equality shall defeat the forces of domination and hierarchy, and the forces of liberty and equality find concrete expression in the free will to construct a morally sound social order based on the intrinsic value expressed in a maximally direct democracy. Democratic confederalism and democratic modernity set the stage for a democratic civilization that will eventually usher in an age of global democratic order.
Doing this, this thesis aims to introduce Öcalan’s political theory to a wider Anglophone audience, thereby contributing to the field of comparative political theory by presenting the insights and political thought of Öcalan as being representative of a subaltern community in the Middle East, and thereby enhancing the decolonization of canonical Western political thought. By providing a critical analysis of Öcalan’s political theory, this dissertation contributes to and informs the fields of democratic theory, feminism, and ecology by offering nuanced insights regarding the interconnectedness between ecological, gender, and social domination.
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Keywords
Democratic civilisation , Comperatic politics , Decolonization , Kurdistan
Citation
Mûkrîyan, R. 2025. Öcalan’s democratic civilization. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.